Perishable Press » Mediahttps://perishablepress.com
WordPress, Web Design, Code & TutorialsWed, 22 Jul 2015 18:30:38 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2Clever Popup Ad? No Thanks.https://perishablepress.com/popup-ads-must-die/
https://perishablepress.com/popup-ads-must-die/#commentsSun, 30 Nov 2014 23:38:34 +0000https://perishablepress.com/?p=15454So these days, I’m seeing more “clever” popups when visiting various websites. For example, do a search, see a result, click to visit.. and then before any content is shown, I’m hit with some annoying popup ad for whatever thing the site is trying to push.

What happens

When a popup happens, I click the back button so fast you can hear a small thunderclap as I return to the search results to find something better. And by better, I mean any relevant site that doesn’t pop some annoying advertisement up in my face.

For example, when writing my books and articles, I gather references and resources to include in posts and pages. In the process of doing this, I often find what looks like an awesome/useful resource, but as soon as I arrive on the page — BAM — popup ad in my face. So it’s click, goodbye as I move on to the next resource. I don’t even care what was on the page beneath the popup, it doesn’t matter because the last thing I want to do is send my readers to a site that so blatantly devalues their time. There always is something better.

The same is true when looking for YouTube videos — I won’t use any video that includes some annoying/irrelevant advertisement. I do this because I care about my audience and want to keep the focus 100% on content, not tricks or gimmicks or other tactics.

Popup ads = garbage

I never thought I would be posting on this topic, as popup ads were for a long time generally understood to be what they are: trashy, greasy, pathetic and desperate. Popup ads are equivalent to getting a salesperson up in your grill when you go to the store. Somewhere along the way, many site owners seem to have forgotten (or never knew in the first place) that popup ads are horrible and annoying.

So this post is just to remind people, or reinforce the idea that popping stuff up in your visitor’s face is almost always a bad idea. Especially if it’s an advertisement. If I am visiting your store, or website, the last thing on earth I want to see is an advertisement pushed up in my grill. If it’s on a website, I leave. If it’s in a store, you get to hear about in real time. And then I leave.

Pros & cons

So why are so many site owners choosing to popup their junk in your face immediately or within a few seconds of visiting? I reckon it’s because they read somewhere, or were somehow influenced to believe, that it’s a good idea. Like, “hey, maybe a good way to improve the quality of my site and get more customers is to push stuff in their face as soon as they arrive.” Or maybe something like, “I don’t care how many people I annoy, I think its worth it to get more people to sign up or do the things.”

Honestly, I don’t know what people are thinking when they decide to put popup ads on their site, perhaps a pros/cons list will help to clarify things. First, here are the pros:

PRO – maybe get more people to do the thing

..and the cons:

CON – annoy visitors

CON – lose visitors

CON – lose credibility

CON – lose respect

CON – increase bounce rate

CON – waste time and energy

CON – cheapen the perceived value of your site

Does that help? Maybe. But I think that people who want to put popups on their site are going to do it regardless of how many people turn around and leave, complain, mock, or whatever else. All I can do is report my own experience and hope that people are listening.

]]>https://perishablepress.com/popup-ads-must-die/feed/21Cool Fractal Videoshttps://perishablepress.com/cool-fractal-videos/
https://perishablepress.com/cool-fractal-videos/#commentsFri, 23 Aug 2013 03:09:26 +0000https://perishablepress.com/?p=14974Fractals are the best! Here are some of the best I’ve seen on YouTube.

Chillz people.

]]>https://perishablepress.com/cool-fractal-videos/feed/0Slowing Down Movies in Quicktimehttps://perishablepress.com/slow-down-movie-quicktime/
https://perishablepress.com/slow-down-movie-quicktime/#commentsFri, 23 Aug 2013 03:03:58 +0000https://perishablepress.com/?p=14877Just a quick post today.. Awhile ago I was putting together some video screencasts, and needed a way to “slow-down” the video to play certain sections at half-speed. After much trial and fiddling, here are the steps that actually worked to produce a saved copy of the movie (not just run the slow motion effect on the live movie).

Slow down Quicktime movie (play at half speed)

To slow down a quicktime movie to 50% of its original speed (and save a copy of it), the trick is to add the scaled video to a longer audio file. Here are the basic steps:

Open both files (the scaled video and the longer audio).

Switch to the video file you wish to turn to “slo mo”.

Select all (Command-A) and Copy (Command-C).

Switch to the audio only file.

Select all (Command-A).

Choose “Add to Selection & Scale” (Edit menu).

Open the Movie Properties window and single click on the Video track.

Choose “Extract” (upper left of the window).

Use “Save As” to make a new copy of this “slo mo” video track.

To match up the durations of the audio and video files, just remember that half-speed video requires a audio file that is twice the duration of the original video track. I.e., 30fps becomes 15fps in the combined slo-mo file. This technique works in general for slowing down and speeding up video tracks.

Better way?

I grabbed this technique from here.. it seemed like the only thing that would work, but in my experience there is almost always a better way.. if you happen to know one, please share in the comments. Thanks!

]]>https://perishablepress.com/slow-down-movie-quicktime/feed/0List All Files and Folders Recursively via Terminalhttps://perishablepress.com/list-files-folders-recursively-terminal/
https://perishablepress.com/list-files-folders-recursively-terminal/#commentsFri, 23 Aug 2013 02:38:01 +0000https://perishablepress.com/?p=14858From time to time I have occasion to generate a list all WordPress files or similar. As I’m not an expert in Terminal, it took awhile to figure out the magic recipe.. now having collected some useful commands, I want to post ‘em for future reference.

]]>https://perishablepress.com/list-files-folders-recursively-terminal/feed/230+ Online Drawing Toolshttps://perishablepress.com/30-online-drawing-tools/
https://perishablepress.com/30-online-drawing-tools/#commentsMon, 08 Oct 2012 18:36:57 +0000https://perishablepress.com/?p=14973 Here are some great online drawing tools for those who like to draw and work online at the same time. Way back in 2006, online drawing tools were few and far between, especially anything with collaborative functionality for multi-user action. Back then, the choices were basically Groupboard and LiTha-Paint. But the scene is much improved, with some amazing single- and multi-user drawing tools available for getting creative and having fun. Here’s a round-up of our favorites..

Pretty nice and simple online drawing tool. Reminds me a lot of an online version of the original MS Paint program. Not that it sucks, it’s actually pretty great for what it is: a basic yet useful tool for drawing online.

Mudcube’s Sketchpad is an excellent drawing tool that gives users full-control over color, brush-size, and just about everything else. It’s super-well polished and brings tasty treats like Patterns, Swatches, History, and a healthy set of tools. Recommended with our highest rating for online drawing tools.

Even more like Photoshop than Mudcube’s Sketchpad, Queeky delivers a wealth of useful drawing tools, including filters, adjustments, customizable menus, and even layers to make it all good. Queeky is a remarkable drawing tool that’s a pleasure to use for solo-drawing expeditions.

Another incredible Photoshop-esque online-drawing tool, SUMO Paint feels like a slick iPad app with all the trimmings and features you could ever hope for.. one of the best online drawing/painting/creative tools currently available. SUMO Paint is definitely one of our favorites for online creativity. Also available in app flavor :)

Pros: online version of Photoshop, many features, fully customizable UI

Cons: no complaints, but would be better with multi-user functionality

Even more fun than Mr. Doob’s drawing tool, Flame Painter makes it easy (and addictive) to create beautiful light-based imagery using a variety of “fire” effects, colors, and more. It’s super fun to create your own “fire” art, but the canvas-size is too small for serious design work.

Pros: easy to create beautiful imagery

Cons: sort of a one-trick pony, but with plenty of options

Unique Feature: fire-based graphics in the comfort of your browser

The same dude who made Flame Painter also makes Fields, Fluid, and much more. With Fields, you get to set the initial coordinates of the fields, and then watch the script slowly transform this:

..into this (and beyond):

The Fluid painting makes it fun to splash and mix paint around on a swirling liquid canvas:

With the default settings it’s difficult to get any crisp results, but after some experimentation Fluid is like virtual watercolor or something. Wild.

Multi-user drawing tools

Open Studio

Open Studio(404 link removed 2015/04/21)

This is one of my favorites. The results are usually pretty abstract-looking, but you can get some great patterns and visual effects by experimenting with the settings. Don’t let the simplicity fool you — this one is worth checking out.

This drawing tool is pretty basic, just pick a brush size and color and go to town. We had fun with this one, but it’s probably too simple for more than casual sketching.

Pros: full-width drawing area

Cons: only 7 colors (no white!), only one drawing tool, no chat

Unique feature: very dumbed down, but stylish and uncluttered

coSketch.com

coSketch.com provides some great features to go along with its basic selection of drawing tools. While sketching, multiple users can chat, add stamps and backgrounds, and even add and draw on a custom Google Map for any zip code. There’s even a multi-user History feature and image uploader. Update: (2013/01/22) coSketch.com seems to be down so we had to remove the link.</update>

Pros: deluxe features such as chat, maps, import, history, and custom stamps

Last but not least, Groupboard is one of the originals and has been online longer than any others. It’s pretty simple and basic, but that’s also part of the charm.. if you want to know what multi-user online drawing tools were like back in 2002, Groupboard is it.

Shouts out..

Props to my good friend Thane Champie for his help with the research for this article. 2050 Dude!!

]]>https://perishablepress.com/30-online-drawing-tools/feed/4Switching from Firefox to Chromehttps://perishablepress.com/switching-from-firefox-to-chrome/
https://perishablepress.com/switching-from-firefox-to-chrome/#commentsThu, 15 Sep 2011 17:26:23 +0000https://perishablepress.com/?p=105 I’ve used Firefox as my main browser for years. I’ve always known it to be fast and functional, but for some reason after version 3 or 4, things started getting not so good. For example, each major upgrade leaves me with fewer compatible extensions. And if you don’t remember to disable the auto-updates option, you may be stuck with your favorite extensions not working. I lost some great add-on functionality for the Fx4 -> Fx5 update, but continued using Firefox almost by force of habit.

Fighting Firefox

After however many months working with Fx5 and half of my extensions not working, Firefox did an auto-update to version 6. That wiped out another handful of add-ons, including a few that greatly improved my workflow. I looked into rolling back to Fx5 (or even 4), but it looked like a complete headache, so I cracked the whip and held fast with Firefox and half of my add-ons disabled due to incompatibility. As I worked with Fx6, I took advantage of the excellent tab-grouping functionality, but also noticed that performance seemed sluggish. I found myself clearing the browser and rebooting way too frequently, until it just got crazy and pages would take forever to load, even after disabling more add-ons. After fighting it for a few days, I finally called it quits with Firefox.

Switching to Chrome

I’ve been using Google’s Chrome as an alternate browser ever since it was first released as a PC/Win beta way back in September 2008. I played around with Chrome on my WinXP machine and really didn’t see what all the hype was about. Back then it was cool and fast, but really couldn’t match Firefox as a serious browser. So a few years later after switching to Mac, I started using Chrome for more than just random surfing and cross-browser testing. As Firefox began failing, Chrome proved to be a consistent, reliable browser that’s blazing fast. At some point, I realized it was time to retire Firefox and roll tuf with Chrome.

Customizing Chrome

Occasional surfing with Chrome is easy, but customizing for full-time use requires some time to get everything fine-tuned and dialed in. After importing my bookmarks and adjusting default browser settings, I went through my Firefox add-ons and found as many alternate Chrome add-ons that I could find. Surprisingly there were only a few extensions that I could not find for Chrome:

Colorful Tabs – not a huge deal, but I really got used to it on Firefox

Tab Mix Plus – provides further customization of tab behavior

HTML inline validator – there are some available, but nothing that just works

DownloadHelper – awesome for downloading just about any online video you can find

After searching and trying all sorts of possible alternatives to these Firefox add-ons, I finally threw in the towel and moved on with my life. Hopefully some of this stuff will be available soon. Also, although technically not an extension, Firefox’ Tab Grouping feature really is super-useful and improved my workflow considerably. So I would add it to the list, but there is a workable alternative which I discuss below.

Staring at Chrome with a confused look on my face

After several weeks using Chrome full-time (like all day, every day), I’ve noticed a few weird things that it does differently than.. well, just about any browser you care to name. Here are some examples of default functionality that could be better in Chrome:

Set the default page for newly opened tabs – This is my biggest gripe: why do I need to run two different add-ons just to set the default page that opens for new tabs? It’s just weird.

The bookmark manager kinda sucks – I was disappointed to see (and use) Chrome’s two-dollar bookmark script. Needs some serious work, or a good add-on replacement.

Text highlighting – feels sloppy in Chrome. For example, try to highlight a line of text and the highlight background blue color stretches all the way to bottom of the element. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning because it’s probably an easy fix.

Deeply nested options – IMHO some of the options and settings are nested way too deeply. I think a few more top-level or 2nd-level buttons would help people access mission-critical settings much faster/easier.

Admittedly, these are relatively minor issues, except the default-page for new-tabs thing is both a serious flaw and complete mystery. Well, not really. We all know why big companies make decisions, but having to install two add-ons to emulate something Firefox can do so easily is just an embarrassment.

My List of Chrome Extensions

Gotta say up-front that my strategy is minimalistic, so I only install an extension if I absolutely must have it. Although it’s amazing that Chrome stays fast and light regardless of how many add-ons you throw at it. Firefox I think struggles when the number of add-ons starts to climb. That said, here are my currently active Chrome extensions:

TooManyTabs for Chrome – good alternative to Firefox’ Tab Grouping feature, providing a great way to streamline workflow

Validity – “Click the icon in the address bar or press Ctrl+Alt+V to validate the current page. Results can be seen in Chrome’s JS console.”

Amazingly, I get better functionality with Chrome using these eight extensions than I did with Firefox using 20 or more. With this handful of add-ons, I get a browser that’s responsive, intuitive, and blazing fast.

Other thoughts

I’ve really enjoyed using Firefox over the years, and will continue to use it as my “secondary” browser. It’s been a month now since switching and Chrome just keeps getting better. It’s fast, free, responsive, and has greatly streamlined my workflow. If you’re looking for an alternative to whatever browser you’re using, Chrome is it.

]]>https://perishablepress.com/switching-from-firefox-to-chrome/feed/52Switching from PC to Machttps://perishablepress.com/switching-from-pc-to-mac/
https://perishablepress.com/switching-from-pc-to-mac/#commentsFri, 21 Jan 2011 00:11:39 +0000https://perishablepress.com/press/2011/01/20/switching-from-pc-to-mac/I finally made the switch from PC to Mac. My previous machine was an old Sony Vaio purchased in 2005. It was top of the line then, and actually worked great until about a year ago, when it inevitably began dying a slow, complicated death. The time to finally buy a new computer was fast approaching..

Evolution, not revolution

The decision to switch to Mac/OSX after years of working on PC/Win happened gradually, beginning with a small MacBook I purchased in 2006 for cross-platform/browser testing. At 13.5 inches (or whatever), the screen was too small to work with full-time, but whenever I did use it, it felt like flying an airplane or something. It was just so sleek and fast and cool, much more streamlined and elegant, a real pleasure to use.

Then a few years later, I pick up an iPhone and more recently an iPad. Those devices are also sleek and intuitive, so much so that my 7-year-old daughter has mastered (and claimed) both of them. So despite having used PCs forever, the decision to switch to Mac was easy, more like a natural progression or next step than some sort of a giant change.

Decisions, decisions

At first I had decided on a Mac Pro, but after reading through forums and thinking about it, I realized that I just don’t need that much of a machine. Every now and then I might get crazy with some video editing or 3D rendering, but mostly I would be doing stuff like:

I also enjoy watching movies, streaming media, and playing games, but I really don’t need a mac tank to do what I do. Even if I worked ten times faster, buying a Mac Pro would have been wasteful. Seriously, I did (just about) everything I needed to do on that old & busted Vaio, so something faster and better yes, but also something that I could really use and get the most out of – something worth the time and money.

My new iMac

After much thought and research, I was pretty much decided on getting an iMac, but not sure of which model or configuration. There are many options/upgrades available, including awesome stuff like two internal drives and a 27-inch monitor. I wanted everything, but my budget was locked at $3,000. So I really spent some time formulating the best possible configuration for my needs. Finally, on Black Friday 2010, I pulled the trigger on a 27″ iMac with the following configuration:

I think this configuration is perfect for my needs. The wide screen and ample memory enabled me to eliminate many devices and really optimize and streamline my office space. Here is a quick photo of the new setup:

iMac – 27in, SSD, 8GB RAM (click for full view)

Amazingly, my old machine completely died literally the day after I had finished transferring all files to the iMac. Now that I’ve had a couple of months to dial it in and really use it, there are a number of things worth mentioning. Let’s start with the good stuff and go from there.

The good stuff

Overall, everything is great. The iMac is much faster and quieter than my old Vaio. As an all-in-one machine, the iMac requires fewer cables and less space. And the display is just beautiful, plenty of space for really setting up shop. Here is a screenshot showing a recent workspace setup (click image for full-size view):

iMac workspace, typical day (click for full view)

As you can see, plenty of space for everything I use during a typical day of web design:

Browser(s)

Code Editor/FTP

PhotoShop

Email

Music

Plus with 8GB RAM, there’s plenty of memory for running other programs/apps as needed. As a side note, it would be cool to get an app that shows you in real-time how much system resources were in use. But I digress..

Virtual Windows

Switching to a Mac, I knew that I would need new software, but there are few programs that I use that simply aren’t (yet) available for Mac/OSX. A good example is the application used for Stamps.com, which we use for postage for Digging into WordPress. There is no Mac version, but by running a virtual Windows environment using Parallels, I can run the Stamps.com PC software, plus everything/anything else that is Windows-only or that I don’t feel like re-purchasing. There are other virtual-windows apps available online, but Parallels works great for my needs, which includes running Windows XP, Windows 7, and several flavors of Linux. I have to say it, running Windows on Mac is a trip!

Solid State Drive

The one luxury I afforded myself for this machine is the 256GB SSD drive. It serves as the primary drive for the machine, and is where the operating system is installed by default. Running the OS and apps on the SSD makes everything lightning fast. Once again, the machine waits for the user. For example, on my old PC, something was wrong, and it took literally five minutes for a complete boot. And because the shutdowns required equal time, the frequent task of rebooting the computer was utterly hellish. The irony is that I now enjoy a 30-second reboot, but rarely need to do so.

Other good stuff

Before getting into some of the difficulties I’ve experienced, here are a few other awesome things worth mentioning:

Security – From what I’ve read, there is much less to worry about security-wise on a Mac. It almost seems too easy.

Installing apps – It could not be easier to install new apps, and they seem to install faster than on Windows.

FTP/SSH – Transferring files also seems to work better, with fewer interruptions and disconnections.

App prices – I am delightfully surprised to see that most Mac apps are a fraction of the cost of Windows alternatives.

Zipping/compressing files – I love the way OSX handles compressed files, which are a breeze to zip, unzip, and manage.

Password management – One word: 1password. How did I live without this?

There really are too many good things to mention here in this post. If you already own/use a Mac, then you know what I’m talking about. For anyone thinking about switching to a Mac, these are just the highlights of the good things, which far outnumber the following list of annoyances and other issues I’ve personally encountered.

Inevitable “Needs Improvement” category

As with any new machine, there are things that work and things that just don’t. Customizing your machine is a process of using it, fine-tuning preferences, and finding workarounds where necessary. Most issues are easily resolved with a little searching around, but there are some that will just leave you stumped. Here is my working list of such baffling Mac conundrums (in no particular order):

Playing media

Until I discovered VLC, I had a terrible time trying to play all of my different audio & video media formats. VLC works great for most of the non-Windows media I can throw at it, and then I guess there’s virtual Windows for the WMA/WMV stuff. I can play Quicktime on Windows, why can’t I play Windows media on Mac? Further, as great as VLC is, it can’t do one thing that is easily done on Windows: play multiple instances. As far as I can tell, there is NO way to loop multiple instances of video (any format) on a Mac (without virtualizing).

Update 2011/01/21: As mentioned in the comments, Windows Media files are playable in Quicktime (up to 7) with Flip4Mac. Thanks to rick and Louis for the tip!

Time Capsule & Time Machine

As mentioned, my iMac has two internal drives. The 256GB SSD is used for the OS, aps, and settings; and the 1TB SATA drive houses all of my working & archive data. Unfortunately, the built-in backup app, Time Machine, refuses to backup the built-in SATA/data drive. It does a great job at backing up the primary/OSX drive, but after countless hours online and on the phone, there is still no way to include that second internal drive (the one with all my files on it) in Time Machine. The workaround? Manual backup via external drive. Ugh.

Calculating sizes/counts of large folders

Ridiculously long waits to get the properties of large folders. I thought this may be something more specific to something on this machine, but after reading around in the forums, it seems that “Get Info” slowness is a common problem. Hopefully a fix or solution will present itself.

Right-click, new file

The ability to quickly create a new file would be awesome. Windows makes it look so easy, from virtually anywhere. If there is a way to do this, please share with a comment.

No cut?

The closest I have been able to get to Windows’ “cut” command is dragging files to their destination while holding the command button. It works, but it feels sloppy for some reason. Sometimes a new finder window will popup while you are dragging to destination. I would love to be able to “control-x” again!

Update 2011/01/21: Solved! Check out TotalFinder for tabbed Finder browsing, cut/paste, and tons more good stuff. Thanks to v3c, Helen, and Priit for the tip!

Copying/pasting folders

In Windows, when pasting a folder into a directory that contains a folder of the same name, nothing is erased (in either folder). If the two same-named folders contain different files, at least one copy of each file will exist in the resulting folder. In OSX, similarly moving a folder results in a complete replacement: the existing folder is erased and replaced with the moved folder. This behavior probably has its own merits, but it doesn’t seem as flexible when it comes to file management.

And last but not least..

No Blu-Ray! Bummer.

Update 2011/01/21: Transferring files from iPhone/iPad to Mac

I totally did NOT expect something as simple as transferring my iPhone photos to my Mac to be virtually impossible. After 2+ hours trying everything short of jailbreaking my phone, I finally threw in the towel and cracked open Parallels. Virtual WindowsXP let me plug in my iPhone/iPad, transfer my photos, and delete the originals from the device with a few simple clicks. Yes, you can use iPhoto to import the camera-roll photos, but any non-iPhone-origin files will not be imported. Then, after importing with iPhoto, you don’t actually have access to the files themselves until you export them out of iPhoto. What a nightmare. Not only is this is waay too complicated, there is also no way to delete your photos from the phone after the transfer. I honestly hope that I am completely wrong about this, and that there is an easier way to manage iDevice files from a Mac.

And finally, some app-specific issues (because I just can’t help myself):

Scanning – can’t scan into PhotoShop CS5 (use Preview instead)

Memory Cards – needed to purchase USB card adapter (less than $10)

Changing Icons – candybar is the way to go, but refuses to work for the Time Machine icon

If anyone knows how to fix/resolve/workaround ANY of these issues, please leave a comment. Hopefully, there’ll be some easy/good solutions & tips that can be assembled and fleshed out for a follow-up post. That is the goal.

Final thoughts

I hate to end my fancy “switch-to-Mac” article with a bunch of second-hand annoyances, but really, that’s all they are. The iMac itself is an incredibly powerful, capable, and beautiful machine. It is so much more than a replacement computer – it has improved and elevated my entire working operation. From someone who works constantly on the computer, it’s the best arm & a leg I ever spent. </rimshot>

]]>https://perishablepress.com/switching-from-pc-to-mac/feed/62Lessons Learned after 5 Years of Blogginghttps://perishablepress.com/lessons-learned-after-5-years-of-blogging/
https://perishablepress.com/lessons-learned-after-5-years-of-blogging/#commentsMon, 30 Aug 2010 23:39:22 +0000https://perishablepress.com/press/2010/08/30/lessons-learned-after-5-years-of-blogging/This Fall, I celebrate five years of blogging. I have written tons of web development stuff at Perishable Press, lots of helpful WordPress stuff at Digging into WordPress, some creative/artistic stuff at Dead Letter Art, jQuery stuff at jQuery Mix, and some business-related web-design stuff at Monzilla Media. Plus a bunch of interviews, guest posts, and other blogging projects. So yeah, lots of blogging and writing during the past five years. And they just flew by.

Despite what the haters may say, there are some tangible benefits to blogging. As I write, I continue to learn a great deal – not just about the fine art of writing, but also about the nature of the audience, social media, and the Web in general. There’s a lot to it, more than you may realize. Looking back during my recent hiatus, I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on the past and contemplate lessons learned, future goals, and what it all means. Here are some of my thoughts, strategies, and lessons learned after five years of blogging..

Original Goals and Strategy

Getting into the blogging game around five years ago, I really had no idea what I was doing. Back then, there were a few “pro” bloggers that paved the way for a lot of folks (mostly big-money bloggers et al), but for the most part the frontier was wide open. When I first jumped in, it was because I was completely smitten by the web-design/WordPress/blogging bug. I loved web design, and found blogging about my experiences quite rewarding. As I first delved into the online game, my goals were rather simple:

Get in the game and build-up and establish my first blogging site, Perishable Press

Share as much knowledge as possible about creativity, graphic design, web design, etc.

Become a better designer in the process of writing about and doing web design/development

Now keep in mind that these were intuitive goals that just seemed like the right thing to do. Most of the content I read on the Web back then was focused strictly on web-design, web-standards, and specific programming langauges – not a lot of stuff on how to blog, how to make money, how to be a rockstar, and all of that BS. A lot of that crap didn’t really begin to hit the scene hard until a few years later, and by that time I knew well-enough that it wasn’t how I wanted to do things. I wanted to do it right from the beginning: build a strong foundation, help as many people as possible, and continue to improve my skillz. All of that “make-money-blogging” and “be-a-rockstar” crap was just too superficial and pathetic. So, to generalize my initial strategy for working on the Web, here it is:

Work hard

Learn much

Share much

Anything less than that and I would be cheating myself from really getting the most out of the experience. I think this strategy is ideal for any activity, whether online or off. Unfortunately, the mainstream is not interested in any of these practices, unless you count hard work motivated by greed. So you’ve got 90% of the online game doing the exact opposite:

Avoid work

Avoid learning

Share?! Are you kidding me?!

Fortunately, hard work, education, and generosity always pay off. It may take longer than cheating, lying, and stealing, but the rewards are infinitely more beneficial and rewarding. It can get frustrating, however, watching complete and utter sellouts flying past you on their way to the top, but once the fame and fortune is gone, they have nothing. Meanwhile, you gain the experience, education, and wisdom that will enrich your life long after your time on the Web.

Lessons Learned

Perhaps the most profound thing I have learned while working on the Web is that virtual social skills definitely translate into tangible, real-world social skills, despite what they may tell you. Ask any seasoned blogger: the key to social success is maintaining diplomacy and understanding in all situations:

Responding to comments

Dealing with attacks

Engaging other blogs

Providing feedback

You’re gonna get some wicked comments, evil people who have nothing better to do than troll your site and try to bring you down. You learn quickly the best way to deal with trolls and diffuse potentially degrading situations is by maintaining a level head. Keep your cool and it’s possible to turn even the biggest haterz into complete fanz. The same principle applies in the real world, where there are just as many if not more haterz and villainz to deal with. Thankfully, the years spent dealing with people on the Web have helped me understand how to deal with them in “real-life” – people are people whether online or off. When dealing with an irate neighbor, I just slip it into “comment-response” mode and turn the situation around.

You will never find a more wretched hive

Despite my best efforts at maintaining a positive vibe, it is hard to ignore all of the wretchedness and wickedness on the Web these days. There are waay too many scumbags who couldn’t care less about anyone else. Most of the time, these lower lifeforms manifest as relentless spam, scraped content, and adsense profits. The Web is flooded with shallow, mindless worms who just want the money. Sadly:

There are waay too many ads, and 90% of them are completely transparent and awful

There is waay too much noise – getting a good signal is becoming exceedingly difficult

There is too much misinformation, deception, ignorance, intolerance, and empty nonsense

There is too much ego – apparently, it’s all about hyping up the latest loser

There is too much selfishness – whatever happened to linking out to other sites?

Given that, it’s a miracle that any decent, sharing, honest people would have any interest in the Web at all. I mean, if you are a decent person and just starting out on the Web, there is a lot working against you. 90% of the people on the Web won’t blink twice before stealing from you, sticking you with a fee, or spamming you to death. Seriously, if 90% of the people on the Web want you to fail, why even bother? I’ll tell you why: because of the other 10% of people who are honest, hard-working, decent folks making the Web a better place. I love to meet and work with the good guys – they indeed make it all worthwhile and enjoyable.

If there is a bright side to the Web

Not all of my “lessons learned” are focused on the negative. Despite what you just read, there are plenty of positives involved with blogging, social media, and online work in general. The main thing you have to keep in mind is that hard work pays off. Always has, always will. And the Web is no exception. Now, I’m not saying “build it and they will come,” but if you are determined, persistent, and motivated enough, success will be yours.

Another old saying is that “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” As much as I absolutely hate this notion, I cannot avoid the inescapable fact that it’s true. Take the time to network with your peers, your fanz, your family, friends, and anyone else worthwhile. It really is important. I have seen people go from zero to rockstar in less than a year by networking with the popular folks. Just do your best to keep it real – nobody likes to be used.

Success is not a linear progression

The further you go, the harder it gets. When you first start out, everything is wiide open, fresh and new. Possibilities are virtually endless, and there is nothing to lose. Going forward, you are shaped by your successes and failures. You do more of what clicks and less of what doesn’t. As you continue doing what works, you take fewer chances, limiting your possibilities and locking yourself into “safe” ways of thinking and doing. To make things fit with what works, your goals will change. For example, I started off writing at Perishable Press about anything and everything that had anything at all to do with creativity: art, photography, painting, web design, and so on. After little response to the artsy-fartsy stuff and a huge response to the web-design and WordPress stuff, I began focusing more and more on, well, web design and WordPress. Today, I am largely defined through that particular lens.

Popularity is a double-edged sword. When you first start out, you can blog about whatever you want because you know that nobody is listening anyway. You still blog your best blog in hopes of attracting attention, but ultimately you can feel free to write stuff that sucks. As you earn a following online, expectations keep you blogging for your audience. If you fail to provide what’s expected, chances are high that your readers will go elsewhere to get it. For example, let’s say I write about CSS and gain a huge following. Expectations keep me writing about CSS, because if I stray too far from it, *poof* – there goes my audience.

Also as you move up the ladder of success and popularity, you’re going to find that the competition gets extremely fierce. This is what I mean when I say that “success is not a linear progression.” It’s more like logarithmic or exponential or something, especially where competition is concerned. Think of success and popularity like a hill. There is tons of room at the bottom, where the circumference is largest. But as you climb, the hill gets increasingly smaller all the way to the top, where “there can be only one!” Naturally, along the way, as you climb along with everyone else, you’re going to meet bloggers and rockstars that you once admired climbing up with you. You may pass some of your peers, and discover that others are complete assholes aren’t worth your time. Because, you know, they are already halfway up the hill – it’s their spot, their success, their ego: “look how far I made it up the hill! Look how popular I am! Look how amazing and ..” You get the idea. Ego is a trap that will keep you from climbing further. When I meet someone with a giant ego, I love to feed it while passing along – it works to my advantage.

The Pros and cons of having an audience

Ultimately, when it comes to blogging, your audience defines you. There are pros and cons to having an audience of your own. Without an audience, you can do and say pretty much whatever you want with no issues. The larger your audience becomes, the more scrutiny your words are going to receive. This is both good and bad: you want people listening to what you have to say, but there will be more drama if you say something disagreeable. You also have much more to lose with a larger audience. A good name is more desirable than gold, so if you screw up and say something stupid, you may lose whatever reputation you have managed to build. The smaller your audience, the less you have to lose, and vice-versa.

Also, the more widely known you are for doing a specific thing, the more requests you’re going to get for help. Again, this can be both a blessing and a curse, depending on what it is that you do and your reasons for doing it. Web development is a perfect example. I get tons of emails asking for help with HTAccess, PHP, and JavaScript, but 90% of the time it is clearly implied that free help is requested. I don’t mind helping people for free when I have the time, but it would be nice to be valued. If someone asks for help and isn’t willing to compensate for it, they’re basically telling you that your service is not valued and not worth paying for. If you’re on your way up, be prepared for beggars, freeloaders, and leeches.

Perhaps the biggest problem most bloggers run into is trying to please everyone. Don’t even try – it’s impossible to do. No matter how hard you try, there will always be somebody that has a problem with what you are saying. Most of the time you’ll find 30% of your audience agrees with you, 30% disagrees with you, 30% doesn’t care either way, and the other 10% insists on freaking out and making a scene. Don’t feed the trolls, as they say. The key is to embrace that 30% of readers that actually “gets” you. Write for yourself first and them next. Along the way, keep in mind that people change and move on.

The Mainstream vs. Your Stream

We each have our own stream of consciousness, activity, and so on. On the web, as in life, certain topics are more popular than others. When you have a popular topic such as Megan Fox, you are getting into the mainstream. The more people like a particular subject, the more mainstream it’s going to be. Thus, if you are blogging about “making money”, it’s going to be much easier gaining a large following than if you were to blog about, say, differential equations. The more your blogging interests coincide with popular, mainstream topics, the easier it is to be popular.

That doesn’t mean you should run out and jump on the “Twighlight” bandwagon just to be popular. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The mainstream is where the numbers are, true, but it’s also where the least-common denominator resides. The mainstream is where the sheep swim. In my experience, the mainstream is the most dumbed-down, uninteresting, lowest-value content available. It’s there for one reason and one reason only: to make money by giving the masses what they want, which is typically entertainment, sex, drugs, and violence. You know exactly what I’m talking about here. It’s the reason Hollywood continues to churn out such pathetic garbage – because it sells.

Contrast the mainstream with your own stream. How much overlap is there? Using myself as an example, I see that certain interests of mine are very hot within the web-design community, at least for the moment. I like what most all web designers like: jQuery, CSS, and WordPress. But I also like a lot of other, less-popular things, like HTAccess, site security, and error logging. If I wanted to rise to the top, I could sell out and just write articles about CSS and jQuery, maybe throw down a few million top-10 lists, give away some free stuff and watch the traffic surge. But that’s not what I am all about. I like writing about esoteric topics, even if that means a smaller audience and less popular blog.

When I come to your site and see a million advertisements, a sidebar full of social-media crap, and a post containing a few weak-ass paragraphs about something that’s already been blogged about to death, a little part of me dies. Don’t be like that. Get a freakin’ clue and try a little harder not to be such an absolute sellout media whore. That’s what everyone else is doing – that’s what the mainstream is doing. And the mainstream sucks.

Success, prosperity, and satisfaction is possible by doing your own thing, swimming your own stream, being yourself. Know who you are, know what you like, be yourself, and share your experience. It’s better to enjoy a small audience that likes your stuff than to cater to a large audience with mainstream crap.

Assuming you achieve your goals, what would you rather have: a huge audience of pathetic, mainstream dittoheads or a smaller audience that actually shares similar interests and listens to what you have to say. For me, the answer is obvious.

The Narrow Way

To wrap things up, let me summarize my lessons learned after five years of blogging and working on the Web:

Be yourself

Be honest – no hype

Be real – no fluff

Be sincere, genuine, unique

Don’t be lazy, selfish

Think for yourself

Take advantage of criticism

Control temper, be patient

Work hard, learn much, share often

Be yourself

It’s a narrow path, but for me, it’s the only way to go.

Update: (2014/11/25) It’s been almost five years since I published this article, and a LOT has changed in the world of blogging. To help get a handle on all the things, check out this pretty comprehensive guide to blogging. That should bring you up to speed on all the nitty gritty.